Rimmel Lasting Finish with Orly Glosser top coat

Morning you beauties!! 

Today I decided to give myself a quick manicure before work as the sun was shining and I wanted to go in wearing a fun, summery shade.  I chose a coral colour by Rimmel from their 'Lasting Finish' range in No Tan Lines.  This is a bargain at just £2.99 and is a great shade for these summer months.  I then decided to go over the top with Orly's Glosser Top Coat (£10.99) in order to give it a bit more shine and for it to last longer.

Supper glossy finish from the Orly Glosser

I'm not the best at putting on nail varnish so you'll have to excuse the poor handywork.  But I hope you can see what a great colour it is and how glossy it came out after the Orly Glosser.  I was most impressed with how quickly the Rimmel polish dried as in a couple of minutes it was rock solid with no 'gooeyness' that you can get with some other polishes.

As for the Orly Glosser, this was a really fine top coat that also dried in a flash and gave considerable gloss considering how thin the actual polish was.  All in all, my how manicure was probably done in about 7 minutes which is great when your in a rush.

Orly Glosser and Rimmel Lasting Finish

These are a great duo to have this summer and despite the difference in price, they really did a good job.  My only negative with the Rimmel, is that it was a little streaky on the first layer, but by the second layer this all evened out.  As for the glosser, it was just perfect.  It does what it says on the tin, giving the nails a great 'gloss' as well as drying quickly and of course extending the life of the manicure.

Rimmel's Lasting finish is available from HQ Hair (here)
Orly's Glosser is available from HQ Hair (here) 

*products given for consideration and review

OPI Navy Shatter - Worst Polish EVER

I thought I'd try out OPI Shatter in Navy for a fun new manicure now we're coming into spring.  I'm in love with navy and couldn't wait to try out their navy shatter polish over a light pink Nails Inc shade called Elizabeth Street. Excuse my grotty and dirty pink Nails Inc bottle - this is one of my favourites and has had its fair share of applications.

SO here we have below the two polishes I thought would make the perfect Navy and Pale pink shatter effect:

I applied my under coat first of light pink and waited for it to completely dry.  I then undid the lid of the OPI shatter and saw OPIs classic creamy consistency polish and applied a light coat over my dried first pink coat, excited to see the shattering take place.

The first hand shattered the first 4 nails but not the thumb.  I waited and waited but nothing happened? I had redipped the OPI navy shatter polish in its bottle after my fourth finger and this seems to have deactivated the active shatter effect!?  On the nails it did shatter it was quite a nice effect, but the pail pink which was showing had a bit of a blue tinge and wasn't as crisp a pink coming through underneath as I had expected.

 Then, I went on to my second hand.  Not one nail 'shattered'.  Honestly, I was in shock, How can OPI one of the most respected nail polish brands have created a shatter polish which worked so badly!?  It was absolute rubbish and honestly, one of the worst polishes I have ever seen.

 Look at the results below.  I didn't even neaten up the edges before I took this picture as I knew I was going to head straight for the polish remover as there was no way I was heading out the house with one set of nails semi shattered, and the other not at all.  Very very disappointing OPI!!

How RUBBISH is this!??!?!

I mean SERIOUSLY what is that, coming from a polish that has a RRP of £11.00 from www.asos.com.  I bought the navy, but I had been contemplating at the time purchasing this beautiful Emerald Green (here) and the classic black. I thought I would see how I got on with the navy and thank god I saw how it doesn't work at all as now I definitely will not be purchasing another OPI shatter.  Considering how much I love their normal polishes, I have now been put off trying some other OPI special collections after these disappointing results.

Not cool OPI. Not cool.  Have you guys had similar results?!?! Let me know!!! xxxxx

Marie Claire's Ciate duo

Hello you gorgous girls!

This  month's issue of Marie Claire brings the wonderous freebie of Ciate's new Caviar collection. I couldn't resist it and had to get myself an issue and try it out.

It comes with a beautiful mink colour called Shooting Star for the base coat, and then a pink / golden selection of Caviar pearls in Cookies and Cream.  Its such a stunning combination; I thought this would be the perfect manicure which screamed glamour.

Ciate - Shooting Star - The colour of this nail varnish was beautiful.  It dried so so quickly and I built it up to three nails to create a matt colour though one coat left your nails with a very natural shine.

Ciate - Cookies and Cream - Then it comes to the pearls. I have never used pearls on a manicure before so I read the back to see what to do, I couldn't find any instructions of applicator so kind of just poured it onto my nail.  Most the bottle ended up on the floor and because the nail varnish is so great at drying my pearls weren't really all over the nail.  

I made such a mess I decided to do just one nail as I couldn't really see a easy way of applying it.  Using the mink brush would get all pearls in that pot too which I didn't want to do and pouring it seemed so ridiculous.  

Maybe I'm really dumb but I'd love to know if there's a trick to doing it as I can imagine in the right hands it would create a really beautiful look.  

Have you guys bought Marie Claire for this Ciate gift like I did? What were your experiences?

Funked up nails

Hi there my little beauties!

Today I painted my nails a summery coral colour by OPI called "I mainely eat lobster". It's a great colour for summer, especially today as then sun tried to peak its way through here in London.

 I'm a diehard OPI fan, I love how it dries quickly and doesn't go streaky when you apply it.  But I've worn this colour so much recently that I decided it needed a revamp! I painted a coat of Maybelline's polka dot collection from the Color Show range on top which completely transformed them!

Because it's a clear varnish it looks best painted on a coloured base coat rather than on its own.  I convinced my friend to try it on one of her white talons and the results are completely different!

Have you guys ever tried a nail polish like thìs, what do you think of it!?




It's a clear varnish filled with thousands of little polkadot pieces which can be built up to increase the coverage.  I love what it did to my coral nails, what do you guys think?